Monday, February 23, 2015

With the upcoming TpT sale on Wednesday, we want to help you find "heroic" products that have helped others in their classrooms. We decided to get together with some blogging friends and share products that have helped others, but also to show how thankful we are when get sweet feedback on our products. It really means a lot to hear that something we made is helping others!

We're so glad that this helped make Jenifer's sub plans easier and was a "lifesaver" for her! Our Social Studies nonfiction articles really are a unit in one! Just print and go! If you haven't seen any of our articles, click the image above or HERE to see them! We will be having a sale on Wednesday, so that's the perfect time to buy!

Browse around the linky for other heroic products, or feel free to grab the graphic and link up your own! Link to a post containing one heroic product and its feedback. Use the graphic if you wish. (No direct links to stores or products, please.) Include the linky button and link it back to this post so others may find great heroic products.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Wow, time is flying by! It's already February which means President's Day is almost here!

In my 4th grade class, we spend a lot of time studying the American Revolution and George Washington. His life was so fascinating! Most students know he was the first president of the United States, but they don't really know much more about his life and what he accomplished. So, I am reading the biography Who Was George Washington? with them. It is part of the Who Was Biography Series. We already read Who Was Neil Armstrong? earlier in the year, and they loved it!

I created a unit to go along with our study of the book (click here to see the unit in our store). It ties in so well with learning about the American Revolution- it describes the causes, battles, and life after the war- of course, you don't have to be studying the American Revolution in your class, it's just a bonus that we happen to be! :)

In the unit, I have comprehension questions for each chapter as well as writing prompts. Then, I've also included graphic organizers to use throughout the book: KWL, cause and effect, summarizing, character traits, and more. I made a comprehension assessment covering the whole book to use at the end of our unit for a reading grade. I'm going to use some comprehension questions and writing pieces as reading and writing grades too (it's always good to have some grades- always seems like I run out of time before the quarter is up!) :)

I have really been focusing on text-dependent questions with my students this year, so all of the writing prompts are questions that the students will use evidence from the text to answer. It's great practice for them to go back in the text to locate information and then use the information to draw conclusions and make inferences.

So, how am I going to use this book? You could use this book as a class read-aloud, in guided reading groups, in literature circles, or as a whole class study. Since I don't have many copies of the book right now, I am reading it aloud, and then choosing parts to have the students close read with me. There are so many activities included- I am definitely not using all of them- I'm picking and choosing what works for my kids and what we have time for.

I hope you can check this book out! I'd love to hear what you are doing to celebrate President's Day! :)
Happy Wednesday!